The Jedi and the Nightsister
by der Jagdexperte
Summary: "Merrin knew that what she and Cal had was special. And every day she thanked her sisters and Mother for it. After fifty years together, she honestly could not even conceive the very idea of living a life without Cal." Or: a post-Fallen Order, post-TROS delve into the wonderfully sweet relationship between Cal Kestis and Nightsister Merrin.


**_The Jedi and the Nightsister_**

**XXXXXXXXXX**

The endless sea of space was peacefully silent, as it has been in the Dathomir system for decades now. But that didn't mean no life was present. On the contrary, as the _Stinger Mantis_ dropped out of hyperspace just before the red planet the system was named for.

Within the cockpit, BD-1 fixed his optics on Dathomir, finding a fascination with the planet everytime his masters travelled there. It was their safe haven for the last several decades, if only because the Empire never touched it. Not like they did with Kashyyyk, Zeffo, and especially Ilum. The ice planet suffered a fate worse than occupation, having been dug up and turned into a superweapon last BD-1 knew. Not even Bogano was safe from the Empire anymore after Trilla had caught up to them during the chase for the holocron. Though Dathomir was not necessarily 'home' per se, whenever there was too much heat it was a place they could always rely on to be safe from the Empire.

The exploration droid quickly glanced back at his masters, to see if they were looking, before shuffling over and trying to cheekily push one of the buttons on the copilot's dash. It was a habit he'd developed shortly after first coming aboard the ship way back when.

A small whip of green Nightsister magick slapped his leg away, making him jump back and beep in alarm. "Stop that," Merrin's rich Dathomirian voice admonished the droid from the copilot's chair.

Though she had aged considerably since first meeting BD-1, she was still a vision, with her spectacular hair – silver from birth and now let down – skin pale as snow, emphasized further by her intricate facial tattoos, and a slender figure maintained through constant exploration of the galaxy alongside her adventurous Bond-mate.

A familiar chuckle erupted from the pilot's seat. "You know he does that all the time," Cal reminded his Bond-mate of the droid's habits. "I don't know why you keep trying to stop him."

Though he had aged over the last fifty years, life had been mercifully kind to the nontraditional Jedi Knight for that time. No longer was his hair the glorious red it was in his youth; now, it was greyed out. He still had a fit form; he'd always been active ever since he was a Padawan a very long time ago, and never stopped being such over the years.

"He's being a child, and he _knows_ it," Merrin retorted, crossing her arms and glaring at BD-1, not once shedding her proper posture.

Cal's gaze lingered at that, having always found the regal way she carried herself quite attractive.

He ripped his gaze away quickly, though, just remembering that he was still flying the ship into the atmosphere. "I agree, but you and I both know actual children are much worse," Cal pointed out. "Surely you remember how much of a handful Ana and Nat were as kids."

"Ana wasn't _terribly_ troublesome, but I agree with you on Nat." Merrin couldn't help but smile at the mention of their daughters.

Cal briefly caught the soft look in her eyes. He could feel what she was thinking. "You're thinking of when we found out about Ana again."

"Yes." Merrin got lost in her memories from so long ago. "We were so young back then. We had no idea what awaited us."

"We didn't," Cal nodded in agreement as he landed the ship with a practiced grace. "I still remember when you told me you were pregnant. I had no idea how to react. I was thrilled, scared, overwhelmed… you name it, I felt it."

"Imagine how I felt," Merrin turned in her chair to face him, face earnest as they connected once again. "Back then, I did not even know it was _possible_ for us to have children. You being a Jedi and me being a Nightsister…"

Cal stood up from his seat, offering a helping hand to Merrin, which she took, allowing him to help her up. "That was one thing that overwhelmed me," he murmured lowly to her, still holding her hands. "Thinking about raising Jedi Nightsisters." He then grew a smile that instantly took Merrin back fifty years. "But I think we did alright, huh? Nightsisters and Jedi are pretty well-off together."

"Yes," she nodded, lips turning up into a smile. "I think we did alright for two survivors. We adapted well."

"Yeah," the Jedi absently agreed. He was lost staring into Merrin's warm amber eyes. He never got tired of seeing the comforting understanding in them, as well as just how much love they carried.

The Nightsister noticed the way he looked at her, and by this point Merrin didn't even care anymore about what they were talking about before. She was just so in love with this man who understood her so deeply that she would let him get away with just about anything.

Merrin was so lost within Cal's emerald gaze that she didn't even notice the distance between them getting closer and closer. It wasn't until their lips met that she finally noticed, and she saw the stars light up like fireworks. It was a familiar feeling to her, one that she had experienced frequently over the last fifty years, but it was one that never failed to take her breath away every time.

"Oh, come on, don't you two kiss each other enough?" a female voice quipped, making them break apart.

"After all this time, I don't think you have the right to be disgusted by our parents kissing anymore, Nat," another female voice leisurely retorted, strumming a very familiar tune on a hallikset.

"I'm not _disgusted,_ Ana! It's just always weird watching them kiss!"

Cal and Merrin turned, finding both of their pride and joys by the lounge. It didn't matter that their daughters were both in their early middle ages with families of their own; they would always be their little girls. Both had very similar, though striking nonetheless, appearances; they inherited their mother's paler skin tone alongside their father's red hair. They even adopted the same hair style as each other, having their hair tied back into a single bun. Both also had tribal facial tattoos like their mother, though it clashed interestingly with their father's emerald eyes, particularly when they used magick; then, they outright _glowed_ green. Suffice to say that while Cal and Merrin could always spot them from a mile away – their features were so distinct – there were some times where it was hard to tell them apart, even with their five-year age gap. At least, until they spoke. Though their ways with words were different, both spoke with an accent more akin to Cal's, but there was a barely-there hint of their mother's Dathomirian accent there, which was more noticeable whenever they spoke incantations.

"I thought you'd come to realize it'd be the same for you when you had a family of your own," Ana said, ever the more mature of the two, as she set her hallikset aside. Playing the stringed instrument was something she grew fascinated by as a child after hearing her Auntie Cere play it. The song Cere had wrote – the one Cal was able to play after merely touching her own hallikset – was the first one Ana had learned, and the one she was just playing.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want to see our PARENTS lip-locked," Nat shuddered. She was quite the opposite compared to her older sister, and it showed through her more stubborn attitude.

Cal and Merrin glanced at each other, sharing a smile as they made their way over. It was a familiar sight to them to see their daughters bicker. Both were passionate women, albeit in very different ways, which led to them arguing with each other often growing up.

"Yet you'll do the same as them in front of your family?" Ana countered, shooting a particular look at her sister saying that she wasn't fooled.

"That is _completely_ different and you know it!" Nat stood up and pointed her finger at her sister accusingly.

Ana stood up as well, a smart-mouthed retort ready to fly from her lips.

"Anastasia. Natalya." Merrin finally interjected firmly, using her girls' full Dathomirian names to get their attention.

The looks on both of their faces suggested she had indeed. Their eyes went wide and their faces flooded with fear, that childish fear that their mother had caught them fighting again. It still persisted even into adulthood when their mother spoke like _that._

"Did you both rest well?" Merrin purposely smiled disarmingly with her patented mom voice. She preferred to use reverse psychology on them, just to make them sweat a little more and perhaps think twice about next time.

It worked here, too. "Yes, mother!" both bowed their heads contritely. That tone made them feel like they were both children again.

Cal chuckled in silence at how quick their girls were to please their mother. It was a part of Nightsister culture that children give their mother the utmost respect, and Merrin clearly succeeded on that front.

"Girls," he called. Ana and Nat turned their gazes towards their father. "Seriously, thank you for coming to Exegol with us. It really means a lot."

Merrin could see the lingering sibling animosity fade away instantly in her daughters' eyes at Cal's earnestness with them, replaced with the love and adoration they had for their father. Her heart melted all over again.

"Of _course_ we'd come with you, Dad," Nat said, caught off-guard. "Did you really think we wouldn't?"

"We would always come if you needed us, even if you did not want us to," Ana promised.

Cal nodded. "I know, I just… I didn't want to tear you away from your families…" He began looking everywhere but at them; it was one of his tells that he either felt shameful or nervous about something.

Ana and Nat both understood immediately that it was the former: though their father had a habit of finding trouble, they knew he never wanted to impose on anyone; his blessed Jedi compassion forbid it. Both of them crossed the lounge and enveloped Cal in a group hug.

"Did you seriously forget that _we're_ family, too?" Nat whispered. "We may have grown up, but that doesn't mean we'll stop seeing you altogether."

"I know," Cal choked up a bit. He loved his girls, and to receive that same love in return filled him with such elation. He tightened his embrace around them. "I know I've said it many times before, but I love you both so much."

Merrin couldn't hold back her tears of joy anymore after seeing her family together. She joined the group hug with a practiced ease, everyone working to include her also. After her sisters were all killed, she never thought she would be surrounded by a loving family again. But she was so unbelievably happy that wasn't the case.

An optimistic yet questioning trill briefly broke apart the hug, but Cal, Ana, and Nat all laughed and Merrin broke a smile as they noticed BD-1 on the holotable watching them with a pleading look.

"Get over here, Best Droid number One!" Nat beckoned the droid over using her own special nickname for him. "You're family, too!"

BD-1 grew joyful as he enthusiastically beeped and assimilated himself into the family's group embrace, receiving fond pets from the two younger members of the family. Both girls grew up with the droid filling a role much like that of a beloved family pet, even if BD-1 was much more capable than any other pet out there. It could be argued that BD-1 was a superior pet even compared to the beastly Nydak that their mother had attested was sometimes domesticated by her people. Though the girls had found Nydaks ridiculously cool if only for their size and strength, they both were in agreement that BD-1 was cooler.

Finally, all of them broke apart. "I'm curious, though," Nat said, placing a hand on her cocked hip. "How do you know Lando Calrissian?"

Cal chuckled, "I don't. But your Uncle Greez did."

"You know he was acquainted with many unsavory types," Merrin reminded. The younger women nodded, remembering the stories about the Haxion Brood.

"He knew him through Maz. You remember her, right?"

Again, Ana and Nat nodded, remembering the tiny, old, orange, and extremely insightful woman from their trip to Takodana back when they were kids. From what they remember, Maz knew just about everyone in the galaxy. She had so many connections it was wondrous to them that she could keep track of them all.

"Huh," both girls went in realization.

"Alright, well… Stay safe girls," Cal bid them farewell.

Ana and Nat both nodded with a smile.

"And watch out for bounty hunters," Merrin interjected with her own concern.

The younger women both rolled their eyes in such a Merrin way whilst exuding a relaxed confidence much like their father's. "We'll be fine, mother," Ana said, as both of them pointedly rested a hand on their lightsabers on their belts.

Merrin nodded in acquiescence. Her concern faded at the reminder that they weren't defenseless little girls anymore. But she did gather them both for one last hug. "I love you,_ Stasya, Natasha._"

"Love you too, mother," the younger women chorused as one in response to their mother's personal Dathomirian nicknames for them, returning the embrace.

When they broke apart, Ana and Nat lingered for a second longer as they gazed upon their family. It was interesting, they thought, that they had such a picturesque family. They found it ironic since both their parents had lost everything at a young age. Add to that how Ana and Nat had grown up in the middle of a galaxy-wide war. Both remembered times when both their parents were so distraught from the stress of having to live a life on the run from the Empire with two children to care for. But they figured perhaps the Force worked in mysterious ways and had opened a path for two tremendously suffering people to have a happy ending.

With those thoughts, both of them vanished off the _Mantis_ in wisps of green.

BD-1 quickly jumped back over to his preferred perch along the edge of the holotable, while Cal and Merrin moved to sit in the lounge area, finally taking the opportunity to relax after all the action.

But the Nightsister could feel her Jedi's thoughts were still focused, and… haunted. She scooted over and leaned into his side, grasping his hand with both of hers. "What are you thinking about?" she gently prodded.

Cal didn't talk for a bit, but Merrin patiently waited. Eventually, he revealed what troubled him. "Those red troops we ran into aboard that star destroyer…"

The Nightsister nodded, her caressing beckoning him to continue.

"The way their masks looked… It reminded me of the clones."

Merrin instinctively grasped his hand tighter, knowing exactly where Cal's mind was headed even without their bond.

"And then, it almost felt like I was back over Bracca, in the Venator."

Merrin's heart ached for him, knowing just how much pain that experience still gave him.

"I can still hear that comm message the commander got, telling them to execute Order 66. And then, everyone I thought was my friend started shooting at me and… and Master Tapal…"

"I _know,_" she soothed, nothing but understanding in her face. "It is okay to feel that way. Sometimes I feel the same way whenever I see the girls spar with their lightsabers."

Cal's face grew anguished, not for his own pain, but for Merrin's. He knew even now she still associated lightsabers with the death of those she cared for.

"A part of me just wants to pull them away and throw those things into an abyss so they don't get cut down by them. Like my sisters were."

"I'm sorry," Cal muttered, looking down.

"Don't be." Merrin let go of his hand and gently turned his face so he could look at her. "As much pain as those blades had caused me in the past, I could not bear to stop you from passing on your Jedi ways to them. Just as you had no desire to stop me from passing my culture on."

He reluctantly nodded, conceding that she had a point: he never thought about not letting her pass on the Nightsisters' ways, not least of which was because he was also fascinated with her culture, just wanting to learn everything about her.

"You must remember that it is all in the past, Cal, and that you need to keep on the path forward." She ran her hands through his hair soothingly, further helping rid the tension within him.

"Yeah… yeah…" He grasped his lightsaber hanging off his waist, getting lost for a moment as he stared at it. "But the thing is… it felt _good_ to kill them. A part of me felt like I was getting revenge on the clones for betraying us."

Her hands came behind his head, and then she rested her forehead on his, lowering her voice to a mere whisper. "And it's okay to feel that way, too. Do you remember what I told you about how the Nightsisters used the Dark Side?"

"They use it but don't let it control them." He recalled, matching her whisper with his own soft voice.

"Exactly." She lightly brushed her lips against his. "It is natural to feel emotions. I know the Jedi believed they led to the Dark Side," she quickly said, noticing how he was ready to retort, likely about how emotions were treated by the Jedi, "but even you must admit you cannot stop yourself from feeling them. The key to not being consumed by the darkness is to control how you react to your emotions… to not let them control you."

He couldn't counter her, he knew. Merrin's unique perspective of things allowed her to come to highly logical outside-the-box conclusions that even a Jedi couldn't refute, because she didn't attach herself so strongly to a set of ideals the way the Jedi did. He didn't agree with her about the holocron way back in the day at first, but he eventually conceded she was right and came around. Ultimately, she was the reason he decided to stop strictly following the Jedi Code; it just felt wrong to follow it with her in the picture, and she had helped him figure it out in a logical way, allowing him to make that choice with confidence. He was eternally glad for that, as he had no idea how the Jedi Order would've responded to one of their own having a family. Had he met Merrin with the Jedi Order still around, he would've likely left the Order if it was the only way he could be with her. And now she was right about the Dark Side as well.

He lightly chuckled. "You always know just what to say."

"You only just realized that?" She raised an eyebrow and barely kept a smile off her face. Her Jedi was just too sweet at times.

"Well, no, but… it's nice to have a reminder every now and again," he said as his finger toyed with that one particular lock of Merrin's hair that always hung loose to the right of her face.

She leaned into the gentle touch, finally caving in and smiling contentedly. Never did she think her life would turn out the way it had. When that armored warrior descended upon Dathomir and began slaughtering her sisters, she thought she would die. Yet she was never found from the place her Clan Mother had told her to hide, and she survived. Then Malicos came, the bastard. He took advantage of her emotional fragility and manipulated her into giving him power through her people's secrets and leading him through that awful, cursed tomb. And she survived that, too.

Then came Cal. Even upon spotting his landing she felt something different in him than she was used to, even past the haze of fearful anger she saw through after she saw him ignite his lightsaber for the first time. Before their first meeting, she saw how he had interacted with one of her old magickal relics – through his Psychometry, she later discovered – and he had sounded fascinated by her in a way that made her feel special and adored. Even during their first meeting that fascination he had was clear in his voice. But what stuck out the most to Merrin about him initially was his honesty. Whereas Malicos had hooked his claws into her by spinning the lies she had wanted to hear at the time, Cal had laid out nothing but the truth to her and let her come to her own conclusions, something that she preferred more as Cal's honesty aligned with her personality more than Malicos' deception did.

Eventually she had discovered that she and Cal were far more alike than they thought. When he told her he knew what it was like to lose everything, she thought it was too good to be true at first: someone who truly _understood_ what it was like. She got the feeling he was telling her the truth, and later on she learned of what he went through with this Order 66. It was so akin to how she felt during the slaughter of her sisters it was almost like reliving it when he talked about the experience.

Fifty years later, she was very willing to admit she was wrong about her first impression of Cal Kestis. He may have been an outsider – a Jedi – but he wasn't a thief and selfish liar. Quite the opposite, really. He had always been nothing but truthful with her, and had given her many things that were truly priceless. Just a few of them were: a new family with the _Mantis_ crew, her and him creating a new family of their own, and that bond between them, both metaphorical as well as a literal Force Bond.

She suspected the Force Bond happened during their first meetings, as Cal had mentioned feeling a strong attachment to a few echoes in the Force relating to her. She also admitted that she had continued following him because he interested her. She looked back to their first meeting in the tomb before facing Malicos for the first sign that a bond was there between them, when Cal had seemed to sense her presence – her exact location at that – before she had revealed herself. Before him, nobody had been able to sense her exact position while she was disillusioned. Not her sisters, not the Nightbrothers, not even Malicos. And since then, only Cal, Ana, and Nat were able to sense her while she was disillusioned. Nobody else.

To put it simply, Merrin knew that what she and Cal had was special. And every day she thanked her sisters and Mother for it. After fifty years together – all that time spent coping with traumatic pasts, performing an act that arguably helped save the galaxy, saving each other's lives, raising a couple of rambunctious little girls while on the run from the Empire, and teaching said girls how to use the Force and how to use magick – she honestly could not even conceive the very idea of living a life without Cal.

As she melted into his warm embrace, she thought of the idea of soulmates she had heard tales about as a child. Now, she thought, it was clear who hers was. He was her other half, as she was his.

**XXXXXXXXXX**

_**To those who have kept up with me, I apologize for being dead for the past year or so, lol. But to make it short, shit happened and I got really demoralized. It was only when Jedi: Fallen Order and TROS came out that I got inspired to write again. One reason was because of that travesty of an ending for TROS.**_

_**(heaves long-suffering sigh) Okay, rant time. Going into this movie, I only wanted one thing: for Ben and Rey to have their happily-ever-after. I cared about literally NOTHING ELSE. The whole movie could've been a mess on equal standing with The Last Airbender (if you're an Avatar fan, you know how terrible that movie was) but if Ben and Rey lived happily ever after, I would not have cared about the rest of the film. That was the only thing I wanted… and we didn't get it. It's obvious they chickened out. I honestly can't even… When I looked more in-depth at the rest of the film, I noticed it was definitely a mess. Which sucks, because there were so many great ideas, but it just didn't come together neatly. Really a problem with the ST as a whole. I personally think it would've worked out better as a three-season TV show instead of as a movie trilogy, since there would've been more time to tell all that story; there just wasn't enough time over the course of three movies to tell all the story they wanted to tell.**_

_**Now, I do genuinely like the ST, but there are definitely issues with it, as there are also issues with the OT and PT. But the worst I think was the lack of cooperation between JJ/Chris and Rian. It's clear now that JJ was a liar when he said he and Chris worked with what Rian put forth, because Chris just about did a spit-take on TLJ in TROS. If something like that happens in a series, ANY series, then that's a huge problem. Couple that with how they went in two completely different directions, and this trilogy just wasn't cohesive. They tried to please everyone with TROS, and by doing that they pleased no one. I don't give as much grief on lacking a plan beyond Ben's arc because the OT did much the same thing and virtually no one complains about that, though if that happened nowadays the lack of cohesiveness will gladly be pointed out by everybody.**_

_**Okay, I have many opinions but for now, rant over. Now, with Jedi: Fallen Order… For one, it's an absolutely fantastic game that you should absolutely get, even if you're not a Star Wars fan. But God, what can I say about Cal and Merrin that I haven't already detailed? I am just totally in LOVE with this romance! (I believe it's going by Merrical, right now?) It's my favorite right behind Reylo. I love their dynamic and I hope to all that is good that**_** Res****pawn**_** further expands on their relationship if they make a sequel. Though I also hope against everything that they don't end their story in tragedy, like what's happened with literally EVERY SINGLE STAR WARS RELATIONSHIP THUS FAR! (sigh) The trials and tribulations of being a romantic in the Star Wars fandom.**_

_**But this story is not over! Well, sort of… I had originally planned for this to be the first chapter in a longer story (internal name: Projekt Horcrux; working title: Nothing is Ever Truly Over) that goes into the post-TROS timeline. But I just can't sit on this until the rest of the story is finished. I like to pull a JK Rowling and plan everything out ahead of time when I write, so it would've taken forever for you to see this if I had stuck to that pattern. I think it works well as a one-shot so I've posted it as such for now. But, well… let's just say there's a reason I wanted to introduce Cal and Merrin first in the story.**_

_**If anyone has any questions, or just wants to talk about anything, even if it's not Star Wars, leave a review! Though if you're looking for a response then please do it with an actual account. I don't answer guest reviews, as it's just way too inconvenient for me.**_

_**Oh, also obligatory disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize.**_


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